Pitch Perfect
Pitch Perfect is a 2012 American musical comedy film directed by Jason Moore. The screenplay was written by Kay Cannon. The musical comedy features an ensemble cast consisting of Anna Kendrick, Skylar Astin, Rebel Wilson, Anna Camp, Brittany Snow, Ester Dean, Alexis Knapp, Hana Mae Lee, Ben Platt, Adam DeVine, with John Michael Higgins, and Elizabeth Banks. The plot follows an all-girl college a cappella group, The Barden Bellas, as they compete against another a cappella group from their college to win Nationals. The film is loosely adapted from Mickey Rapkin's non-fiction novel, also titled Pitch Perfect. Filming concluded in Mid-December 2011, in Baton Rouge, Louisiana. The film premiered in Los Angeles on September 24, 2012. Released on September 28, 2012 in the United States, Pitch Perfect grossed over $65 million domestically and 45 million dollars internationally, as well as peaking at #3 at the box office. The film became the second highest grossing musical comedy film behind School of Rock.The film was also met with positive reviews from critics, receiving an 81% positive rating on the review website Rotten Tomatoes based on 135 reviews. It was mostly praised by critics for its comedic approach, its flashy musical numbers, and the performance of Wilson. Synopsis Beca, a freshman at Barden University, is cajoled into joining The Bellas, her school's all-girls singing group. Injecting some much needed energy into their repertoire, The Bellas take on their male rivals in a campus competition. Plot Beca Mitchell (Anna Kendrick), newly arrived freshman at Barden University, has no desire to attend college, but she is forced to do so by her father (John Benjamin Hickey), a professor at the university. Wishing she could instead move to Los Angeles to pursue a career in music making, Beca takes up an internship at the school radio station, where she meets fellow freshman Jesse Swanson (Skylar Astin), who develops a crush on her. When Beca's father discovers she has not been attending classes, he comes to her with a proposition: if she joins a club and still does not want to remain at college after a year, he will allow and pay for Beca to move to Los Angeles. After some persuasion from group leader Chloe Beale (Brittany Snow), she reluctantly joins the all-girl a cappella group Barden Bellas. Aubrey Posen (Anna Camp), another group leader doesn't initially approve of recruiting Beca, but yields nonetheless due to a desperate need for members and Beca's own talent. Beca joins alongside a group of other women who do not fit the Bellas' typical mold: the misunderstood Cynthia-Rose (Ester Dean), Stacie Conrad (Alexis Knapp), the quiet Lilly Onakuramara (Hana Mae Lee), and the eccentric Fat Amy (Rebel Wilson). At group rehearsals, Aubrey's uptight and controlling nature gets on the nerves of the other girls, especially Beca. She is constantly critical and insists that they use the same set list the Bellas have been using for years. Meanwhile, Beca continues hanging out with Jesse, who has joined the Treblemakers, the Bellas' main rival. After learning that Beca doesn't like movies, Jesse tries to get Beca to watch The Breakfast Club. Meanwhile, the Bellas participate in the southeastern regional competition at Carolina University. In spite of their distasteful and old set list, the group manages to place second, which gives them the bid to semi-finals. A brief scuffle after the competition leads to Beca's arrest by the police. Jesse tries to help by calling Beca's father, which infuriates Beca and turns their budding friendship sour. A series of complications during the road trip to semi-finals forces the Bellas to get a ride from the Treblemakers, led by Bumper Allen (Adam DeVine), and some smack talk ensues. Once at the semi-finals, Beca notices how bored the audience is with Aubrey's traditional and overused arrangement, so she provides an impromptu back-up. The Bellas come in third in the competition behind the Treblemakers and the Footnotes; even though the audience seemed to enjoy Beca's remix, Aubrey becomes furious and yells at Beca, who quits the group. When the Footnotes are disqualified after the discovery that their lead singer is still a high school student, the Bellas are called to the national competition in their place. The Bellas get back together after returning from spring break, with the notable exception of Beca. During this time, Beca begins working as a DJ at the Barden radio station, playing her music on the overnight shift while also steadily distancing herself from Jesse. Upon finding a copy of The Breakfast Club and watching it on her own, however,she realizes how much she misses the Bellas and Jesse. Her father convinces her to rejoin the Bellas, whom she finds falling apart during rehearsal. After having a group heart-to-heart conversation, the Bellas appoint Beca as their group leader and decide to adopt Beca's more modern and original music style. Meanwhile, Bumper leaves the Treblemakers after being offered a job as a back-up singer for John Mayer. With Nationals approaching and the group short a member, Jesse becomes the new group leader and persuades the Trebles to allow Benji (Ben Platt), Jesse's roommate, to join the group in Bumper's place. At the a cappella national competition at the Lincoln Center, the Bellas sing a piece arranged by Beca. After their performance, Beca and Jesse reunite with a kiss. Six months later, auditions are beginning for the new year while the Treblemakers and Bellas are preparing to select new members for their groups; Jesse and Benji are shown sitting at a desk in the audition hall, followed by Beca and the Barden Bellas, along with their trophy from nationals. Cast *Anna Kendrick as Beca Mitchell *Skylar Astin as Jessie Swanson *Anna Camp as Aubrey Posen *Brittany Snow as Chloe Beale *Rebel Wilson as Fat Amy *Adam DeVine as Bumper Allen *Ester Dean as Cynthia Rose *Hana Mae Lee as Lilly Onakurama *Alexis Knapp as Stacie Conrad *Utkarsh Ambudkar as Donald *Ben Platt as Benji Applebaum *Elizabeth Banks as Gail Abernathy-McKadden *John Michael Higgins as John Smith *Christopher Mintz-Plasse as Tommy *John Benjamin Hickey as Dr. Mitchell *Freddie Stroma as Luke *Jinhee Joung as Kimmy Jin *Caroline Fourmy as Mary Elise *Nicole Lovince as Kori *Utkarsh Ambudkar as Donald Soundtrack # The Treblemakers - Don't Stop The Music #Barden Bella's - The Sign, Eternal Flame, Turn The Beat Around #The Treblemakers - Let It Whip #Pitch Perfect - Since You've Been Gone #Pitch Perfect - You're Gonna Miss Me When I'm Gone #Pitch Perfect - Riff Off #Barden Bella's - Party In The U.S.A #The Treblemakers - Right Around #The Barden Bella's - Just The Way You Are, Just A Dream #The Treblemakers - Bright Lights Bigger City, Magic #The Barden Bella's - Price Tag, Don't You, Give Me Everything Bonus Tracks #Pitch Perfect - Starships with Mike Tompkins Reception Pitch Perfect received generally positive reviews. It received an 81% "Fresh" rating on Rotten Tomatoes based on 124 reviews as well as 65 out of 100 on Metacritic based on 30 "generally favorable reviews." It was also well received by audiences, who gave the film an "A" CinemaScore on an A+ to F scale. The film was mostly praised for its comedic approach, which some critics have compared to Bring It On, as well as the film's flashy musical numbers and Rebel Wilson's performance. NPR's David Edelstein selected it as one of the top movies of the year and Entertainment Weekly chose the soundtrack as one of the year's best. Production The film is based on Mickey Rapkin's non-fiction novel Pitch Perfect. Rapkin, senior editor at GQ magazine, spent a season covering competitive collegiate a cappella. He followed the Tufts University Beelzebubs, the University of Oregon Divisi (the loose inspiration for the Bellas), and the University of Virginia Hullabahoos (who have a cameo in the film), writing about the singing, groupies, partying and rivalries. Two members of the a cappella community, Ed Boyer and Deke Sharon, both in Rapkin's book, were brought on board to arrange songs, produce vocals and act as on-site music directors. The film was shot throughout campus and inside buildings at Louisiana State University in Baton Rouge, Louisiana. Elizabeth Banks is a co-producer and a co-star in the film. Casting The casting department included Justin Coulter, Rich Delia, Allison Estrin, and Michael Roth. The film stars Anna Kendrick, Anna Camp, and Brittany Snow. Producer Elizabeth Banks appears throughout the film alongside John Michael Higgins as commentators for the competitions. Paul Brooks stated “First and foremost, we were looking for actors who had comedic instincts and thought we’d get lucky with terrific actors who happened to be funny and can actually dance and maybe sing. It turns out we did get lucky with our cast!” According to producer Elizabeth Banks, “The character Beca required someone who was grounded, who has a strong point of view on the world, who is funny and empathetic and someone who we can all relate to and root for." Of Kendrick she said, "Anna is all those things, and there was no other choice for the movie.” Fellow producer Brooks said "I saw Anna in Up in the Air and thought it was the most exquisite, elegant, balanced, sublime performance. Anna was our first choice for the role of Beca." When casting the character of Jesse, Max Handelman said "We were looking for a young John Cusack-type guy. We needed to find someone who was kind of awkward but not a geek, but not so cool that you’re not rooting for him." Skylar Astin was chosen for the role. Of Astin's audition, Banks said the chemistry between Skylar and Anna when they read together prior to shooting was "clear and they were able to riff off each other." Rebel Wilson was recognized for her performance in the comedy film Bridesmaids upon auditioning for the role of Fat Amy, which she won instantly. Moore recalled Wilson singing Lady Gaga's "The Edge of Glory" while beating "on her chest with her fists". He said, "I didn't even hear the end of the song because I was laughing so hard. There’s this beautiful openness to the way Rebel approaches everything, and that’s what works great for the character. She’s fearless". Adam DeVine was personally chosen by Banks and Handelman for the role of Bumper after they saw him on the television series Workaholics. Banks confessed that she and her husband are "big Workaholics fans" and after watching one night during the film's casting, they saw DeVine and "immediately thought" he would be a good choice for Bumper. However, he declined because he wasn't a singer. However, DeVine eventually surprised Banks and Handelman with his vocal skills. Anna Camp was chosen for the role of Aubrey. Producer Max Handelman said, "Elizabeth and I were huge fans of Anna’s from True Blood. Aubrey is set up as the antagonist for Beca, and Beca’s already a bit hard-edged, so it was so important to find an actress who could play Aubrey as someone who could marshal the crazy but also was sympathetic." Release The world premiere of Pitch Perfect took place on September 24, 2012 in Los Angeles, California. Pitch Perfect has earned $64,666,000 (63.5%) in the United States, and a further $37,200,000 (36.5%) elsewhere, for a worldwide box office gross of $101,866,000 since release. The film opened to limited release in the United States and Canada on September 28, 2012 and wide release in the United States and Canada on October 5, 2012. It grossed $1,755,935 upon its opening day of limited release and $4,889,050 on its wide release. In its opening weekend the film opened at number 3 behind Taken 2 and Hotel Transylvania grossing $14,846,830 million. The opening weekend audience was 81 percent female, which is considered overwhelming. The opening weekend also attracted a younger audience with 55 percent of the opening weekend audience being under the age of 25. The film has become the second highest grossing Music Comedy film behind School of Rock ($81.2M). It is also the seventh highest grossing college comedy film behind Road Trip (68.5M). Pitch Perfect was released on Blu-ray and DVD on December 18, 2012. Critical Reception Pitch Perfect received positive reviews. It currently holds an 81% "Fresh" rating on Rotten Tomatoes based on 124 reviews as well as 66 out of 100 on Metacritic based on 30 "generally favorable reviews". The film was mostly praised for its comedic approach, which some critics have compared to Bring It On, as well as the film's flashy musical numbers and Rebel Wilson's performance.needed NPR's David Edelstein selected it as one of the top movies of the year and Entertainment Weekly chose the soundtrack as one of the year's best. Trivia *One of the movie's lines refers to being "pitch slapped." Kelley Jakle competed on The Sing-Off with the Backbeats, and one of their opponents was Pitch Slapped. *A special screening of the film was held on 25 September 2012 at the LSU Student Union Theater because parts of the movie were filmed on LSU's campus. The turnout for the screening was so great that only a little more than half of the students in line got in to see the movie. The producer saw that there were more students wanting to see the film and allowed a second showing immediately following the first. *The role of Gail was originally written for Kristen Wiig but she declined due to scheduling conflicts. Elizabeth Banks, one of the film's producers, eventually took the role. *ICCAs stands for International Competition of Collegiate Acapella. *The other two Barden a cappella groups are the BU Harmonics and the High Notes. *One of the categories shown during the riff-off is Songs Ruined By Glee. *Beca has an 'Allen Ginsberg' poster in her dorm room. *The gas station they stop at is Kean's gas station which is actually a dry cleaning business made to look like a gas station. *Brittany Snow said that Rebel Wilson improvised most of her lines and would go on 20 minute tangents that would have the whole cast and crew in stitches. *Available categories for the riff-off include Black Michael Jackson, White Michael Jackson, Songs About Sex, Ladies of the 80's, Overplayed Black Eyed Peas, Ugly Lead Singers, Reggae Time, Stadium Rock, Party Rock Anthems, The Judd's, and Famous Duets. The only categories exercised were Songs About Sex and Ladies of the 80's. *During the Riff-Off, Ester Dean sings S&M, which was co-written by her. *During the celebration party of the a cappella groups, you will see in the far right side of the shot that Chloe (Brittany Snow) is kissing the guy who was with her at the shower.